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Armed police operations in London fall

ITV documentary 'In The Line of Fire' followed officers from CO19’s uniformed response team. Photo: ITV

New figures released by Scotland Yard reveal that armed police operations in the capital has fallen in the past year.

In 2011 there were 4,656 deployments compared with 4,432 in 2012. The force also say that the number of times armed officers respond to emergency calls has also fallen, which is said to be because fewer people are using guns on the streets.

Other facts from Scotland Yard:

Officers rarely fire weapons at around 3,000 incidents a year.

In four years, officers have fired just 13 shots.

In four years, officers have killed one person, Mark Duggan.

Last year there were 1,182 pre-planned armed operations in the capital, compared with 1,387 the previous year and 1,703 in 2010.

1,700 firearms were seized from the streets last year. 12 of those were machine guns.

13 to 22 armed response vehicles patrol the streets of London most of the time.